Adios for Flickr FAQ
Is it free?
You can download the app and use it for free for up to 25 Flickr albums. You can also use it for free to download and unzip your Flickr data if you have more than 25 albums. To create the album folders locally, you need a license key, which you can share with two friends (activate up to 3 computers, with unlimited exports per computer). Buy now.
How does it work?
Adios for Flickr uses the account data export that you can request on your Flickr settings page. It contains all photos, all videos and all metadata of your Flickr profile — but without Adios for Flickr, every photo ends up in one single folder once you have downloaded and unzipped it.
How do I request my Flickr data again if something has changed?
Go to your Flickr settings page and click "Request this data again" at the bottom right. Then wait for the email from Flickr telling you that the export is ready and start Adios for Flickr again.
How do I request Flickr data for a different Flickr account?
Open the app and open the menu (top left). Click "Reset Flickr Login Data". Now you can log in with another Flickr account.
Can I skip the Flickr data download? I have already done that.
Sure. Start the app, click "Get Started" and on the next screen, below the "Login Now" button, click "I already downloaded my account data and want to skip the Flickr login".
Why does this app exist? Why not just use the Flickr export options?
Because there is no easy way on Flickr to download all your albums — you can only download them one album at a time. Not nice :( For all the details, have a look at the article 5 ways to download all of your original Flickr photos and albums.
What about photos that are not in any Flickr album?
They are currently not exported. This version only exports photos that are part of a Flickr album.
There is an easy workaround, though. Head over to your Flickr Organizer, click "Albums & Collections" and create a new album called "photos not in albums". Then select "Your content not in a set" in the content selector at the bottom, click "Select all" and drag and drop all selected photos into the new album. Click "Save" and request a new account data export on your settings page.
Why doesn't the app use the Flickr API?
There are several reasons, even though the Flickr API itself looks really good:
- Flickr can shut down apps that are built on its API. An app that downloads all your data to make leaving Flickr easier is probably a good candidate for that. Maybe!
- Using the API, every single photo would have to be downloaded separately. With 30,000 photos on Flickr, that means 30,000 individual connections — pure overhead. The account data export bundles 500 photos into a single ZIP file instead, so downloading 60 ZIP files is much faster than downloading 30,000 image files.
- Photos that are in several albums would normally have to be downloaded several times via the API. The account data export contains every photo exactly once.
How long does it take until my Flickr account data is ready to download?
It depends on:
- the number of albums and photos in your account
- the current Flickr workload
It ranges from a few minutes to 2 days — and sometimes up to 5 days if you have a lot of photos on Flickr.
How long does it take to download my Flickr account data?
It depends on:
- the number of albums and photos in your account
- your internet connection
- your target download folder. It is faster to pick your internal hard drive than a slow network storage or an attached USB drive.
How long does it take to create my album folders?
It depends on:
- the number of albums and photos in your account
- where the Flickr account data has been downloaded to
- the location you want to export to
If you have the space, pick folders on your internal hard drive. That should be the fastest option.
Is there a log file?
Yes. When the export is finished, you get a link to the log file. You can also find it here:
- on macOS:
~/Library/Logs/Adios for Flickr/log.log - on Windows:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Adios for Flickr\log.log
But it is pretty boring, unless something went wrong.
The download was interrupted. What can I do?
Just start the app and the process again. Files that have already been downloaded completely are skipped, which saves you time.
Do the photos keep all their metadata?
The files keep the original metadata (such as the EXIF data written by your camera) exactly as you uploaded them to Flickr. They do not contain the metadata you added on the Flickr website, such as title or date taken.
"Windows protected your PC" appears on app start. Now what?
Click "More info" and then "Run anyway".
This message appears because I am a single developer and I do not want to pay several hundred dollars a year to code-sign my Windows builds — the app simply does not earn that much. So you need two extra clicks. Sorry :)
Still have a question?
Drop me an email. I will get back to you as soon as possible.